This invention relates to an agricultural vehicle and more particularly to a tractor type agricultural vehicle.
There are very many different types of tractors available for agricultural functions and farmers generally choose the type of tractor which will suit the particular crops they intend producing. Many tall growing crops such as maize and tobacco cannot be worked after they have grown to a reasonable height by conventional low level tractors. High crop tractors have been developed in which the drivers cab and engine are mounted at an elevated position which is able to pass over a row of crops being worked or harvested. In use, the tractor wheels run on either side of the particular row or rows of crops.
One problem with this arrangement is that a farmer needs to own two separate tractor type vehicles in order to properly tend to his crops during their full growing cycle. This, of course, adds considerably to his capital outlay and accordingly, indirectly, adds to the cost of the crops. Conventional high crop tractors have their own disadvantages. Many prior art tractors are not easily steered and in many fields they have difficulty in negotiating turns at the end of each row of crops. Also, most high crop tractors are not easily adaptable to perform different functions other than the high crop function they have been specifically designed and built for.
A further significant problem is that the actual process of mounting the agricultural implements to high crop tractors can be difficult. Many agricultural implements are wider than the tractor itself. For high crop tractors it is desirable to mount the implement in the space between the front wheels and the rear wheels. When the implement is wider than the vehicle itself the implement somehow needs to be manoeuvred into the space between the front and rear wheels in order to couple the implement to the vehicle. Since such implements tend to be heavy and cumbersome this manoeuvring is not achieved without considerable difficulty.